How Many Arms Does a Turkish Spindle Need?

By Amelia © December 26, 2025

Your most typical truly Turkish spindle shaped spindle has four arms - made up of two pieces where one goes through a hole in the other, and the combination of the hole in one arm and the shaft holds the two pieces in place. The length and shape of shaft, the length and thickness of the arms, and how high up the shaft the arms sit all play a role in how well that spindle spins, in what ways it can be spun, and how much yarn it can hold. But that's a separate post.

You see, I was looking over my spindle collection and realized I have many Turkish-style spindles that don't have 4 arms, or that are not truly Turkish-spindle shaped with their 4 arms. So from least to most, here you go:

1. 
   This etsy acquisition from MuddyDuckWorkshop is a Basque spindle called a Txoatile spindle. It is similar to some spindles shown in Betty Hochberg's handspindles booklet. Good luck winding on - well, some folks have definitely done some work on finding ways to wind on that are interesting (search on YouTube), but generally you are not going to take a cop off of this by removing the pieces. Now there are many other makers on Etsy as well as Muddy Duck Workshop, but the one I received from them was well made and is fun to pull out and spin.

2. 
   This is my newest Turkish-esque spindle, I saw one at SOAR this year and had to pursue, because - 3 arms? Yes, 3 arms! It does basically collapse when you pull the shaft out on it empty, and likely the arms come out easily when there's a cop on them. It is sold through SpinSpul; getting one in the US is a little tricky, but that may no longer be the case by the time you read this. I love getting packets from overseas, so definitely a fun one.


3. We already did the traditional Turkish style, but there are interesting alternatives; I've seen several makers who put the arms one above the other, not intersecting. My favorite is my Spin Dizzy (on the left) (no longer made), though Peace Fleece sold a "Russian" spindle that was this style of Turkish, Majacraft did this with their multi-weight Turkish-style spindle, and the Katrinkles multi-weight Turkish-style spindle with one arm above the other rather than intersecting. The multi-weight Turkish-style spindles give you several sets of arms that all fit on the same shaft so you can pick the arms you want to get the spindle weight you desire. See Which Spindle Spins The Best for why you might want different weights of spindles, because that is not this blog post.

4. Another interesting alternative was made by Malcolm Fielding of Australia (in the middle), his Turkish-style spindle had one arm resting in a cut-out on top of the other arm. So the thinner shaft didn't go through the thicker shaft, but instead rested in a cut-out on top of the thicker shaft. Beautifully made, as all Fielding spindles are, though he has retired. His apprentice does good work and may get to these spindles at some point as he expands his repertoire.

5. The third 4-arm alternative is the Jenkins Woodworking Aegean-style spindle (on the right), where there is a stopper on the thinner arm so it goes through the thicker arm but cannot go all the way through due to a thicker edge placed so the thinner arm stops at the perfect position. Like all Jenkins Woodworking spindles, this is a lovely spindle with excellent dynamics. Wanda did post a YouTube video showing a different wind-on for this spindle, it is a good wind-on for slippery fibers such as silk as well, so worth a look. And often the arms are decorated as well, a bonus!

6. 
   Then there is also the 6-arm spindle by Jenkins Woodworking. It was posed to him as a challenge and he met the brief excellently. He made the Merlin and the Weaver, a smaller one. These are lovely spinners. They have two thin arms and one thick arm with two channels cut through it to keep the thin arms at the right angles. The main trick was deciding how to wind on - over-2/under-1 isn't going to directly work. My solution was to treat the 2 thin arms as a single arm, then I could do over-2/under-1. Others have adopted an over-3/under-1 approach.

7. 
   And last, though perhaps it's a stretch, is the 8-arm Turkish-style spindle that I usually refer to as a pencil Turkish, the one I use in my beginner classes which has 4 pencils, and every pair of arms is rubber-banded together. I do make a shaped shaft for it out of 1/4-inch dowel to give it better dynamics. See How Do You Make A Turkish Spindle for information on this.

That's it in my collection - if you've run across a one-arm or five-arm Turkish spindle, let me know! There's room for it to grow.

References:
Muddy Duck
SpinSpul
Jenkins Woodworking
Malcolm Fielding

PS yes, there are quite a few Turkish spindle makers these days. In addition to Jenkins who are hands-down the best, here are other current makers I enjoy:
Snyder Spindles
IST Crafts
Turtlemade

PPS I agree, there are other multi-arm spindles such as the Balkan spindle and the Trindle Spindle. The Balkan has a fixed piece with what looks like 4 arms, but you don't wind onto them since it is a single piece. And the Trindle has a variety of arm options - however, you don't wind onto the arms as they are very thin with shaped weights at the ends of the arms. I've chosen to draw the line and not include them, though they are interesting spindles in their own right.

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© December 16, 2025 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

S.T.A.B.L.E.R.

By Amelia © August 16, 2019

Every specialty has its own vocabulary, but a word shared by many is "stable". It's an acronym:

"Stash Beyond Life Expectancy"

I knew I was STABLE with my fiber stash, but I'm a newly empty-nester and looking at spending part of the year in an RV to have some fun before my grandparent years (no hurry, kids!) The US has so much natural beauty to enjoy and I've not had much opportunity since family camping trips as a child - Camping as a parent is work, so thanks, mom &dad!

This upcoming long journey has me planning out what to take and revisiting my "stable" of fibers and yarns. In so doing, I found that I was not only stable, but likely STABLER - I had Stash Beyond Life Expectancy and Reincarnation! If skeins were horses, with my stash, beggars would ride (to borrow a pre-automobile metaphor).

The pre-sale stash (well, a corner of it...)

I cut my stash in half right away with a stash-busting and extra-tool-busting studio sale in my studio and on Facebook and Ravelry; my friends near and far helped with the redistribution and well-wishes for my journey - I may even have added a few stops as we circle the US, so look for some meet-ups along the way or let me know when your group meets and I will try to drop in when I'm near.

It took a hard dose of realism, and Netflix providing the Marie Kondo series, to get me to admit I had too much of both fiber and tools. It's been a blast rehoming fiber and tools - so much fun to see friends and make new ones as they found special treasures and spindles they've been wanting, and the messages of how I got them started with my book, Productive Spindling (available online from Bosworth Spindles while I am away from my own copies) or classes they took (and yes, I am still teaching! Happy to do a group or private lesson while I'm on the road if we can merge timeframe and location :-))

But I digress. Half my stash was still STABLE. I did some back-of-the-napkin math on how much stash I'd need for the trip. If I did a fair bit (okay, a lot) of spinning, cranking, knitting, crocheting, nalbinding, and weaving, I might have the following "output":

• 2 pairs of socks/week on the sock machine
• 1 scarf or tote a week on the rigid heddle
• 1 crochet/knit/nalbound had per week on the hook or needles
• 4 oz. cotton/week on the charka
• 4 oz wool/week on the wheel or spindle

Now, that's likely at least double the output I'd be likely to produce since I plan to be hiking and exploring as well - and I'm bringing a ukulele so there should be some play time as well! But it's still a starting point, so let's work this through. If I assume a 40 week journey (it could be!) and 4 oz. per scarf/hat/socks, that works out to 60 pounds of fiber. So I started out with that all lined up in the hallway and the reality that it was too much, sunk in fairly quickly.

But there is a bit of a rethink I do need to do - the handspun will feed into the crochet, weaving, and cranking, so if I spin for a week and then use that fiber the next week, and don't overload myself, then I would have a fortnightly (that's 2 weeks) plan of:

• 4 oz wool, spin then weave/crochet/crank
• 4 oz cotton, spin then weave/crochet
• 4 oz yarn to crank, weave or crochet (or nalbind!)

That feels more do-able, 8 ounces of spinning every 2 weeks and some commercial yarn so I don't feel pressured to spin everything. But to be completely honest with myself (and you!) even that may be overreaching, if I get distracted by sight-seeing, ukuleles, or writing ... but it feels right as a starting place.

So what does that reduce my number to? 12 oz times 20 fortnights = 15 pounds. Heck, that's very doable in the RV - my clothes probably weigh more!

The "finalists" in the trip-fiber selection.

When I did mail order and wool shows, I had a lady who showed up at Black Sheep Gathering each year to buy her wool for the year - so it is possible to avoid stable (and even lots of stash). I'm hoping my reset and time on the road will give me a different perspective on fiber acquisition and use.

The fiber going with me fits in this nice large (waterproof!) tub, which can ride on the back of the RV on the rack:

The tub, filled to capacity with fiber & yarn.

I'd be interested to hear if you are a "stasher" or have a more just-in-time fiber acquisition policy - let me know in the comments!

Thanks,
Amelia.

~~~~
© August 16, 2019 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

Why should I care about twist?

By Amelia © July 15, 2016

My nephew is visiting, and amidst my studio spring cleaning, I found a NIB Duncan butterfly yo-yo, so of course I offered it to him. He knew exactly what it was and proceeded to rip open the package and give it a spin.

Only to be sadly disappointed because it has been sitting on the shelf for too long. The string's twist had re-formed itself, and so when spun, the string will unwind, but then the yo-yo spins at the end of the string rather than rewinding back up.

A yo-yo string looks like a very tight 2-ply but is actually a folded cable — a 3-yard length of regular cotton string is taken, twist is added (a lot of twist!), and then it is folded on itself so that it cable-plies, with a fold at one end. That fold is really important, as it is then opened up a little and the yo-yo's middle pole is put there. That's right, your standard yo-yo is operating on a specially twisted piece of string. Each one has to be made for the yo-yo, since each one has to have that fold.

But any yarn left wrapped tightly on something long enough will lose its twist, and that's what's happened to this yo-yo string. The center portion no longer wants to be twisted on itself, so the yo-yo doesn't try to wrap itself up again once it reaches the end of its string on the unwind.

I plan to recuperate this yo-yo string the same way I wake up dormant twist in singles after plying: warm water. I want to see what it takes: warm water, or hot water, or even possibly steam.

Twist is always important to me in my spinning, and this little yo-yo string exhibits exactly what I caution new students about: dormant twist. When singles sit on your bobbin or spindle for even a weekend, the plying has to take that into account. You can use warm water to figure out what a balanced ply looks like, and then ply your yarn to match that sample. I talk about this further on several posts on this blog.

And, if that doesn't work, then I will make a new yo-yo string from a cone of non-mercerized 10/2 weaving cotton. After all, there's gotta be a spindle or wheel around here somewhere ...

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© July 15, 2016 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

What's a Dealgan?

By Amelia © July 2, 2016

One of the things I really love about spindling is that there always seems to be more to learn. I came across yet-another-new-to-me spindle type recently, the Dealgan. So, what's a Dealgan? It's an 18th century Scottish spindle. A little piece of wood, really, about 5-6" long with a knob at the skinny end and a bulb at the far end, with a flat bottom and an X cut into that flat bottom.

My first contact was the information provided by Lois Swales of Missing Spindle, who posts about them on her blog, sells reproductions on etsy, and has several handy YouTube videos for exploring this historic spindle. She's been out for a while, though, so I looked to NiddyNoddyUK (also on etsy) for one.

Now, if you've looked into spindle shape at all ... Okay, if you haven't go and read Which Spindle Spins the Best? on this blog, I can wait. So, now you know that you want rim weighting and a skinny shaft - neither of which are evident on the Dalgean. It won't spin for a long time, and generally won't go that fast with a flick, so it's best suited to spinning in limited space (seated, perhaps) and medium thickness of yarn. I've been experimenting with lap spindle techniques and drop spindle techniques, and funnily enough I seem to get the most speed by twirling it from below with all my fingers, rather than trying to flick the shaft with my thumb and index finger. I plan to keep exploring, and look forward to trying out plying.

Why this shape and size, then? Portability, durability, utility. All are possible. It's one sturdy piece, so it can be dropped, tucked away, or even thrown with little chance of harm coming to it. It forces you to wind a sturdy ball similar to that wound on a nostepinne, and the conical shape means you can pop the ball off when you are done.

That reminds me of a very interesting question asked on an Ask The Belwether post on Facebook: why wind a plying ball if the yarn comes off your Turkish (and Dealgan!) spindle as a ball? Two reasons, really: one, you can deal with singles management separately from plying this way; two, you can use speed plying techniques such as the Andean hand-roll with a Turkish, Dalgean, or other bottom-whorl spindle, or a kick-ply with a top-whorl. Yes, I was tickled pink to find out that Scottish plying is also done from a two-strand ball.

The other spindle the Dealgan reminds me of is the little Victorian silk spindle Bette Hochberg drew in her book Handspindles, made popular by Hatchtown, Will Taylor, and my own Natalie spindle. Those are one-piece spindles with their mass at the top. It's funny the way spindle shapes keep showing up in different places. I always remember that the goal of these tools is the same: creating yarn for textiles.

The Dealgan is clearly a historical spindle. I find it an interesting spindle to explore, and am sure that it will enrich my spindle-life as I experiment with it and find what it can and can't do. And, at a pinch, I may even re-explore one of the early Spindlers' threads on spinning with Mexican cocoa frothers and honey dippers.

Next, though, I plan to spend some more time spinning on rocks. No, really. I've done it before but want to give it a more serious go this time, fill a rock or two and then ply. It's something I recommend to my classes: don't give up on a tool or technique until you've tried at least a spindle-full, plied, with it. And I didn't follow through with my rock spinning, even through I did enjoy it. Definitely worth revisiting.

What's the oddest spindle you've spun with? perhaps we will explore some of my odder spindles, in future posts. Until then, here's another one to consider: Can You Spin a Sheep?

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© July 2, 2016 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/

What's it like to shoot a video?

By Amelia © June 29, 2016

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that there are now two more spindle videos available to spindle afficionados around the globe. These two are special for me - because I'm the one in them! Woot!

That button above will take you to Interweave's store, where you can find "Supported Spindle Spinning with Amelia Garripoli" and "Spinning on a Turkish Spindle with Amelia Garripoli". Yep, that's me - my name in lights, Ma! It is available as a DVD and as a Video Download.

Yes, I do get royalties on purchases; and they also showed me how to sign up as an affiliate, so any Interweave purchase you make through the link above gets me a percentage also. How cool is that?

But, back to the original question. What was it like? Exhilarating. Excruciating. Extreme. I've actually been in front of a camera quite a bit, but there was a room of students at the time (my other job since 2014, as faculty at a local community college). However, this time, it was different. In my head, it was different. I haven't quite nailed down the reason (care to conjecture - I'm open to ideas of the cause). My thought was that the DVD is somehow more permanent than taping a class that will be gone once final exams are completed. The equipment was definitely quite a bit more extreme than my webcam setup at the college. Impressively so. And the studio was definitely more polished than our classrooms - state of the art equipment, but no interior decorating in sight, on campus.

The crew at F&W/Interweave was wonderful - Jill, Leslie, Anne, the camera guy (Oh, I am bad at names!), the makeup lady, and the chocolate lady - very supportive, helpful, and wonderful to work with. I was impressed at how quickly things got resolved when we had to nail down a video timeline, how well they edited my course outlines to make them flow for the recordings, and how smoothly the day went. I felt valued, and was thrilled to be putting some of my knowledge into this medium. I pick up bits and pieces here and there, put them together into cohesive ideas and methods, and love sharing them with others. That's why I teach - I don't want what I learn to end with me.

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© June 29, 2016 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/